What do I need to do at the beginning of the quarter?
This article provides an outline of steps useful to consider as you prepare to teach a course in Canvas and points to step-by-step procedures for completing relevant tasks, which include:
- Adding content to Canvas
- Combining Canvas courses
- Reviewing course content
- Publishing your new Canvas course
Add content to Canvas
If this is the first time you are teaching a course in Canvas, you will need to add content to your course. If you are new to Canvas, you will want to familiarize yourself with the Canvas environment, learn about how the Canvas syllabus works, add your files and assignments to Canvas, set due dates, and see your course as your students will see it.
- Become familiar with the Canvas course home page*
- Make your Canvas course accessible for all users*
- Learn about the Canvas syllabus*
- Add files to your Canvas course
- Check the accessibility of your course files
- Learn about assignments in Canvas
- Create and edit assignments in Canvas
- Add an assignment to the Canvas calendar*
- See your Canvas course as students see it*
If you have content in Moodle or Blackboard that you want to add to Canvas, these instructions can help you do it:
If you have taught in Canvas previously, you can easily move content from one Canvas course to another:
- Migrate course content from Canvas (UW course)*
- Migrate course content from Canvas (non-UW — import a Canvas course export package)*
Zoom meetings scheduled in your previous Canvas course will automatically include Calendar events for previous Zoom meetings. To avoid importing previous Zoom calendar events to your new course, deselect Calendar items* when importing your previous course content.
Combine Canvas courses
Is the course offered through more than one department? Are you teaching multiple sections of the same course? You will want to verify that the Canvas has listed the courses correctly. If necessary, you can combine Canvas courses.
Review your content
After adding content to Canvas, you will want to review it to make sure that content is current and dates reflect the current quarter. Consider whether your Canvas course includes private content. If so, you can lock individual files and folders.
Does the enrollment in your Canvas course match the roster? If not, you can add students (as well as teaching assistants or guests).
Does your course contain Panopto recordings? If the recordings are in the Panopto section in your Canvas course, you will want to copy and move any recordings from a previous course to ensure that students in the new course will have access. Additionally, make sure to update the link to recordings in the course navigation. Canvas will copy the recordings if they are embedded in assignments.
Publish your course
When you have added and reviewed course content in Canvas, and made sure that all the required participants are also added, you can publish the course. You must publish the course in order for students to be able to see it.
*Canvas vendor documentation
